Bison Potato Soup with Bacon & Jalapenos

Whew! I needed to take a couple days off to catch up from my weekend. It was madness I tell you.

Friday afternoon a very fun editor from Virginia put me in touch with another very fun editor from California. They were in a bit of a crazy bind. Well more like a panic really. They needed new rib, chicken, kabob, and pizza recipes with photographs. Oh and maybe a cover if I could swing it. Oh and everything had to be styled specifically so, but not fussy.

I sort of blinked and read it again. They wanted all this by Sunday night and it was Friday afternoon? I had two thoughts. This is absolutely insane, and heck yeah I’m in! All I can say is I’m very lucky I have a bunch of people around me willing to put up with my 100mph brainstorms. Thanks to all their support I not only got it done while having a good time (although I don't know yet if any of my shots worked for their cover),

but was able to give her two extra recipes just in case.

I don’t know if you realize this, but when you look at my blog you aren’t looking at food styling. I’m giving you the real deal. My goal here is specifically to make real food, take pictures of that real food we’re actually eating, and not spend much time fussing about it. In other words, this is my place to unwind.

On the other hand, when I’m working for a magazine, newspaper or corporation I’m creating a product for their business. Food styling and planning is a must and the creative process is much different than my homey little blog. Admittedly, I thoroughly adore that process. I love to make food beautiful! It’s my art and passion.

What typically happens in those types of situations are recipes get planned and tested beforehand and then cooked again in an um, nicer way to photograph. The point is to make us all drool, and to do that food has to be fussed with quite a bit. Sadly, most of that food can’t be enjoyed and ends up in the trash, which makes me feel shameful.

Thoughts aside, I can tell I’ve been neglecting my happy place here because I’ve been giving you a lot of dessert and soup recipes. When I toss the meat and potatoes to the side so to speak, it means I’m just sharing the end pieces. I’ll spend some time catching up on a few meals. Hopefully on ones with lots of vegetables.

All I’ve got to offer you today is soup, again. Bison soup that I took a quick shot of a couple weeks ago. I hope it’ll be enough for now.

Bison Potato Soup with Bacon & Jalapeños
Here in the Northwest we're still coping with rain while the rest of you are
enjoying the sun. Soup season might run through July at this point.

8 ounce package sharp cheddar, shredded
¼ cup flour plus 2 tablespoons, divided
½ pounds (about two large) russet potatoes
1 tablespoon butter
2 carrots, peeled and diced
1 onion, diced
2 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 pound ground bison (ground beef works too)
3 cups chicken broth
1 (12 ounce) bottle beer
1 teaspoon dried parsley
2 cups milk
¼ cup sour cream
¼ cup jarred jalapenos, diced
2 tablespoons liquid from jalapeño jar
½ pound crispy cooked bacon, chopped

1. Toss the shredded cheese with 2 tablespoons flour, set aside.

2. Scrub potatoes and cut into large dice. Cover with water in a large pot, salt well and bring to a boil. When nearly fork tender strain the water and add the potatoes back to the pot.

3. Meanwhile, melt 1 tablespoon butter in a large skillet over medium high. Add the carrots, onions, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder and cook until softened some, about 5 minutes. Add the bison and cook until no longer pink. (If there’s a lot of fat you can strain some out here.) Add 1/4 cup flour and cook for 3 minutes more minutes. Pour the mixture in with the potatoes.

4. Add the chicken broth, beer and parsley and bring the soup to a high simmer for a few minutes. Add the milk and bring back to a simmer, but do not boil for 5 more minutes stirring often. Turn off heat and stir in cheese until melted. Stir in the sour cream and jalapeño juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.

5. Garnish bowls with diced jalapeños and crispy bacon.

Recipe and photograph by Laura Flowers.

Printer Version

Fresh Pea Soup & Food Photography Thoughts

I want to talk a little today about photography. I know I haven’t approached the subject in the past. That’s because I’m still learning to shoot food well and don’t feel I have much to offer you yet. Though today, I want to acknowledge something that’s been bugging the hell out of me since my first photography course in 1996. Light. Or supposedly proper light rather.

From early on I always liked shots with shadows. I know I’m supposed to do all kinds of stuff to get rid of such atrocities, but I don’t want to. If you look at the above picture you’ll see shadows in the soup, and nearly all my shots won’t be “properly” lit.

For me, I feel it’s more powerful, more realistic, to have light and shadow move in a natural way or often in a dynamic way. I’ll even work with high contrast light sometimes when I need texture to come out of something like a boring looking peanut butter cookie. So my point is this. I can’t follow the rules, nor would I want to. Even if my work isn't sometimes well liked. Although often, the opposite happens and I catch the attention of people who can use my work.

This is what I challenge you food photographers and budding food photographers to do. I want you to confront convention. I want you to think, to explore, and to step outside of these ridged regulations sometimes. I think when we’re able to accept food photography as more of a free art than an exact set of rules to be religiously followed, then our medium will be brought to new levels not experienced before. Think of it this way, even Ansel Adams had to shoot his own way as he recreated the rules.

I’m not afraid to be me, and I want you to be brave and explore your own talent and style. Even if that means it takes awhile to catch on with everyone else. This isn’t saying you shouldn’t learn the rules of photography if you don’t know them. Great artists start with the classics. But once you understand them, you’re almost always better off starting trends and breaking new ground.

Who wants to be on the tail end of an outgoing trend anyway? Not me, no thank-you.

Fast & Fresh Pea Soup
"This classic French soup made with fresh peas and shallots comes together in a snap!"

Ingredients
2 tablespoons butter
2 medium shallots, finely chopped
2 cups water
3 cups fresh shelled green peas (I used frozen)
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons whipping cream (optional)

Directions
1. Melt the butter in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Cook the shallots until soft and translucent, about 3 minutes. Pour in the water and peas, season to taste with salt and pepper. Increase the heat to medium-high, bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer until the peas are tender, 12 to 18 minutes.

2. Puree the peas in a blender or food processor in batches. Strain back into the saucepan, stir in the cream if using, and reheat. Season to taste with salt and pepper before serving.

Serves 4. Ready in 17 minutes.

Submitted by Lizz C. to Allrecipes.com. Photograph by Laura Flowers.

Mom’s Chocolate Waffle Cookies

I had a dream about a month ago. Clear as day I had a vision of my mother in a hospital after surgery and I was taking care of her. I woke Jesse to tell him about my dream. Unlike normal dreams, this is one I refer to as a preparation dream. During the dream I felt strong and calm. As if I understood this is supposed to be, or planned rather.

A week later my mother called telling me about a mouse-sized growth in her throat, and that she was making an appointment to get it checked out. The biopsy was benign, and a five-hour surgery took place yesterday. Everything turned out well, but she has some recovery ahead of her.

As I sit in the hospital keeping vigil, these cookies remind me of her and of my own childhood. Every Christmas she would pull out the waffle iron as far back as I can remember, and make these magical cookies. Magical to me at least. To a little foodie, cookies in a waffle iron were something special, and much different than the Toll House Chocolate Chip ones she would make on other occasions.

These cookies provide me with visual reminders of our kitchen in our split-level orange home in College Place, Washington. There was a chocolate brown refrigerator that I often yanked open to peer inside for snacks when I was bored or hungry. Attached to the kitchen was the main dining area where Mom kept a bookcase stuffed full of her many cookbooks. I would pull them down, rummaging through 1960s and 1970s Better Homes and Gardens looking at the pictures even before I could read. Maybe this is where my passion for food and photography began now that I think about it.

In college I realized that I wanted to someday be good enough to copy historical images. I needed to understand the concepts of art as well as master the technical side of photography before I could even think of trying. I also realized that I would have to work differently with light, composition, and Photoshop to come close to producing the same qualities that certain films created. I wasn’t sure I could do this, but I did try.

Somehow, the top shot has the qualities of a dying Andy Warholesque time; ridged, uncomfortable, structured. Too shiny, and not screaming out that this is food. More art than not, it needs a macramé plant holder to accompany it. Or maybe a few random figurines! The bottom shot is a more modern look; warm, casual, unstructured, and much like you wouldn’t disrupt the scene if you snatched a cookie for yourself.

I remember my mother always used canned frosting. She loves canned frosting. I myself am not so fond of the stuff, unless it’s on these cookies, as the canned version somehow magically stays soft, probably from all the chemicals in it. Although, I have been known to make my own chocolate frosting to smear over the top.

My mom will get better, and I realize there are moments where she will need me, as I needed her when I was younger and will likely need her again. It’s all part of this pretty darn wonderful life, and I feel strong, protective, and brave enough to face forward.

Mom’s Chocolate Waffle Cookies

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 ½ cups sugar

½ teaspoon salt

4 eggs

¾ cup cocoa powder

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour

1 to 2 containers of canned chocolate frosting

1. Preheat Belgian waffle maker.

2. In a stand mixer or with a hand mixer, cream together butter, sugar and salt. Then beat in eggs until well incorporated. Mix in cocoa powder and vanilla extract. Then add the flour and mix until just combined.

3. With a standard (size 50) cookie scoop, scoop the dough and drop onto the hot waffle iron onto the sections. Cook 90 seconds per waffle. Carefully remove the hot waffle from the iron with a spatula to a cooling rack.

4. Once cooled, frost with chocolate frosting as desired. Or as I do, eat them sans frosting.

Recipe from Linda Komberec. Pictures by Laura Flowers.

The Case of the Missing Meatloaf, Its 1950s Replacement, and a Goat

I lost my meatloaf last week and can’t find it anywhere. How does one lose a meatloaf? I thought I placed the leftovers in a small container. Did I actually do this? Am I going crazy? No one claims to have touched it, and Rocky the Dogapotamus is much too short to reach the counter, and hasn’t yet figured out how to open the refrigerator.

This has left me particularly on edge and paranoid. My running shoes went missing too, but then I remembered tripping over them in the middle of the night on my way to the bathroom. I’ve lost my keys as usual, but they somehow turned up as well. So where is this missing meatloaf? Even the container is gone.

I think I’m losing my mind.

Anyway, I decided to replace the missing meatloaf with a recipe out of the 1950s The Family Home Cookbook I purchased from Evalois, a woman in Lewiston, Idaho who's purging her life-long cookbook collection.

When I open this book I can’t help myself, I start to laugh and can’t stop. Every savory recipe in this nutty text is seasoned with enough salt to make your eyes twitch, and don’t forget the Accent! Accent is a seasoning product consisting of MSG and a few specks of spices. No wonder everyone who lived through the 1950s has such fond food memories. I would too if everything I ate had MSG in it, including the water for all those boiled vegetables. Of course I would have also had a killer headache.

I wonder if enough people smoked that they could no longer taste food without the excess salt saturation. Or maybe people were accustomed to more salt back then, and our food today is too bland. Or just maybe we spice our food today instead of salting it to the hilt all the time. Who knows, I’m just guessing here, but I can see why physicians used to tell their patients to cut back on the salt!

I’ve copied the recipe for you in its original form, including the bold of the ingredient list and their spacing. I left notes in parentheses the way I made it, but feel free to follow the original recipe. Just don’t complain I didn’t warn you.

I’m still missing my meatloaf. I’m afraid that I’m going to find it in a cupboard five years from now. I wonder if one can smell rotting meatloaf through an airtight plastic container.

This might be further proof I’m going nuts, or perhaps it might prove I’m not as crazy as I think I am. Driving down a main street in the city of Clarkston, Washington last week I spotted a man walking his goat on a leash. I thought I must have been seeing things, and decided to turn around and stop my car.

Whew, I wasn’t seeing things. This guy was taking Scooby Doo the Goat, his beloved potty trained house pet for a walk. All I had on me was my lame camera phone, but I had to grab a shot anyway. I didn't catch the man’s name, but he looks identical to the "Miner 49er" from the old Scooby Doo cartoon. So Miner 49er he is.

Miner 49er asked me not to call Scooby a goat, as he believes himself to be a dog. And you thought I was crazy? Although I admit, a pet goat might be a lot of fun to walk down a city street.

Meat Muffins
(Heh. I like the words, "meat muffins".)

Grease twelve 2 1/2–in. muffin-pan wells. (These grease grenades do fine in a nonstick pan without any extra grease)

Combine and mix lightly
1 ¼ lbs. ground beef
½ lb. ground pork
2 cups (2 slices) soft bread crumbs (Ground up in the food processor for me)
1 cup milk (way too much, I added a ½ cup)
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

and a mixture of
2 teaspoons salt (Holy cow, cut this in half unless you really really like salt)
1 teaspoon accent (Does this really need an MSG bomb on top of too much salt?)
½ teaspoon thyme
¼ teaspoon pepper

Divide mixture into 12 equal portions. Pack meat mixture lightly into muffin wells.

Bake at 350°F about 40 min.

Meanwhile, blend together and set aside
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup ketchup

After 20 min. of baking time, spoon about 2 teaspoons ketchup mixture on top of each meat muffin and continue baking. Unmold.

12 Meat Muffins

UNMOLD MEAT LOAVES-With spatula, gently loosen meat from sides of pan. Pour off excess juices; invert onto platter and remove pan. For meat loaves with topping, pour off excess juices and lift loaf onto platter with two wide spatulas.

Recipe from “The Family Home Cookbook” by the Staff Home Economists at the Culinary Arts Institute. Melanie De Proft, Director. Copyright 1956 & 1963. Pictures and write-up by Laura Flowers, cartoon still from Scooby Doo.